It’s 1954, and the war in Algeria is raging. Daru (Mortensen) is a colonial teacher in a schoolhouse that is the only building for miles. While he debates whether he should stay in the dangerous area or leave, a law officer arrives dragging a bound man behind his horse.

The man is Mohamed (Kateb); he has been accused of murder and needs to be escorted to Tinguit to face trial (and certain death, as he has already confessed to the crime). Daru agrees to accompany Mohamed, but key encounters with both sides of the bloody war test his honour.

There are members of ANU Film Group who routinely request more Western films be added to the programme. This film should please them, as the cinematography, combined with the tropes and themes (it even includes a visit to a frontier brothel), will evoke many of the classic John Ford Monument Valley-set classics. It also reminds one of a war movie in the classic Hollywood tradition.

But director Oelhoffen raises this far above your standard mediocre John Wayne horse opera. His amplification of the isolation of the Algerian frontier, accompanied by an evocative score by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis, give the movie inspiration. Mortensen gives another of his empathetic subtle performances as the torn schoolteacher who must confront himself as well as the war.

Yet another French film on this semester that exemplifies the art form that is cinema.

Remember how, in Fargo, there was a suitcase full of cash that Steve Buscemi buried in the snow? Well that turns out to be the MacGuffin (look it up) in Kumiko, The Treasure Hunter, as title character Kumiko (Kikuchi) stumbles across an old VHS copy of the Coen brothers’ classic and believes it to be real. So she decides to pack in her mundane job (not before stealing her sexist boss’s credit card!) and sets off to North Dakota, USA, in search of the buried treasure.

Many see the central character in this partly-inspired-by-real-life film as a pathetic, withdrawn, non-empathetic character who is only to be pitied. I see her as someone who is brave enough to take something that she believes in and revolve her whole existence around it. And, despite whatever negative consequences arise, you have to respect that. I also think that whoever has the former opinion isn’t looking too deeply, as Kikuchi’s performance brings so much to the character. She is truly one of the most underrated actresses of her generation – despite being Oscar nominated in her mid-twenties for Babel, she is seen too infrequently on the big screen for my liking.

With many similarities to Marge Gunderson in Fargo, I argue that Kumiko is actually one of the more revolutionary female characters to grace our screen in recent times. None of us really have a map for where we are going, and Kumiko, The Treasure Hunter proudly celebrates all the weirdness in that.